Comfort Measures
by denise1
Summary: Yet another Desperate Measures tag.


Comfort Measures

By

Denise

Jack tried to shift into a more comfortable position. It wasn't working. Damn it felt like a mule had kicked him. Ok more like a 9mm slug, close enough. He took a second to thank whatever little bit of paranoia that had made him put on a vest and to wonder if he'd been doing this too long if he could tell the caliber of bullet from how much it hurt.

From where the pain was originating from that son of a bitch had to have shot him square in the back. He had a funny feeling without the vest a piece of his spine would be missing right about now.

"Just how tough would it be to put sleeves on these things?" he asked Sam, more to take his mind off the fact that he was lying face down in a puddle with blood running down his arm than a real desire for conversation. "I mean I don't want to waddle around like the Doughboy but for Pete's sake I'm sick of being poked fulla holes."

Not getting a response he pushed himself up a bit on his elbows and turned his head towards Carter who was still kneeling beside him. In the dim light he could see that her eyes were closed and she was breathing rapidly. Something was wrong; he just knew that something was wrong. "Carter?" He ignored the pain in his wounded arm and grabbed her hand that was braced against the ground. He felt her hand tense under his then go totally limp as she passed out, collapsing to the damp surface in a soundless heap. "Son of a…Carter!" He grabbed for her wrist, grateful when he felt the faint pulse.

Ignoring the roaring pain in his back he rolled to his side, fumbling for the radio she'd let fall. "Daniel!" he barked into the device studying his second. She looked like she was simply asleep her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Just like she'd looked back on Volia when she'd passed out after Orlin had gotten too touchy feely. Despite himself, his eyes darted, searching for a nice glow in the dark alien he could blame this on.

"Jack? What's wrong?"

"Carter just passed out or something, get down here," he ordered, letting go of Sam's wrist and wrapping his fingers around the pistol laying loosely in her other hand. There could very well be a snakehead lurking in the shadowy corners of the tunnel. A goa'uld that could have a field day with two relatively helpless humans.

"Ok. We're almost there. Just don't shoot us," Daniel answered. Jack didn't even take time to think about how Daniel knew he now had the gun.

"Yeah, just hurry up." Jack let go of the radio and grabbed Sam's wrist again his fingers feeling for her pulse. Damn, what the hell had he been thinking, dragging her down here goa'uld hunting? God only knew what those two morons had been doing to her the last week. Sure she'd said she was fine, she'd also said she was fine when she'd come back from Nasyia with a snake in her head. Actually he knew exactly what he'd been thinking. The alternatives were to either leave her with Maybourne or with the two assholes that had been doing god only knows what for the last week. All things considered she, and they, were safer if she was with him.

He squinted his eyes, trying to focus better in the dim light as he searched for any obvious signs of abuse. On the surface she looked fine, but he needed no education on just how inhumane man could act towards its fellow man or woman. Sometimes the worst abuse wasn't physical.

"Jack?" he heard Daniel call as a flashlight beam crept around the corner.

"Over here." Jack uncocked the pistol and set it down, carefully pointing it away. Daniel led Teal'c and a pair of paramedics into the tunnels.

"Jack?" O'Neill pointed at Sam indicating that the paramedics check her out first. "What happened?"

"She just keeled over and passed out," he reported as one of the medics squatted by him checking his still bleeding arm.

"Yeah, we got that part. How about you?"

"I got shot Daniel," Jack ground out as the medic oh so gently poked and prodded his arm. "You digging for gold?" he asked the man, who ignored him.

"They're just doing their jobs. Who shot you?"

"I didn't see."

"Mike, what you got?" The medic checking out Sam asked his partner.

"Through and through in the right bicep," He said wrapping a small pressure bandage around Jack's arm. He then grabbed Jack's wrist and checked his pulse. "Did you lose consciousness?" he asked.

"I don't think so. What about her?"

The medic looked over to his partner who shook his head slightly. "Nothing that we can see. We'll take you both in."

"We need to go to McChord Base Hospital," Jack insisted.

"Sir, we don't transport there."

"You do now. I'm a colonel in the US Air Force, she's a major. We go there," Jack ordered. All it would take was one blood test and the SGC would have another can of worms to deal with.

"Fine whatever. Mike, help me out here." The two paramedics lifted Sam and gently placed her on the gurney, covering her with a blanket and securing the belts.

"You want to walk or will you wait for us to get back?" Mike asked Jack.

"I'll wait for the next one. Murray, you stay with Carter." The Jaffa nodded and followed the two men back down the tunnel.

Jack slumped a bit, resting his head on his good arm. "What's wrong?" Daniel asked.

"I'm just not in the mood to climb those stairs."

"Right. Now the truth," his friend demanded.

Jack sighed. "The slug hit my back…my legs are sorta…numb," he admitted grudgingly.

"Numb?" Daniel's voice rose.

"I think it's just the shock but…numb," Jack said closing his eyes, a note of resignation in his voice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daniel jerked awake with a start. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. A glance at the watch confirmed that it was early evening. Wait; was his watch on Colorado or Seattle time? He couldn't remember. The flight out had been such a flurry of information and the studying of e-mailed floor plans that he honestly couldn't recall if he reset his watch.

Aah well, what's an hour; he shrugged, looking at the figure in the bed. She was still out of it, or maybe simply asleep. He didn't know for sure.

Of course, given what the doctor at the base hospital had told him, he half expected her to sleep for another week or so. Severe hypo-glycemia had been the diagnosis, along with dehydration and a veritable laundry list of sedatives swimming in her blood stream.

He felt a surge of anger at the pair of doctors who'd done this to his friend.  For a minute he wished the military had had jurisdiction so the two 'doctors' would be in their custody instead of civilian authorities. He was no lawyer but he had a funny feeling that there would be no charges pressed. The main reason for Sam's kidnapping seemed to be Jolinar and the changes wrought by the symbiote. A symbiote whose very existence was classified. And that need to keep the secret would outweigh the need for justice. Hell the way things worked those two guys would likely be offered jobs are Area 51. His blood boiled at the whole unfairness of it all.

A rustling of the starched cotton sheets drew his attention to the bed as Sam awoke with a start, sitting upright and frantically scanning the room, an unfamiliar look of fear on her face.

"It's ok. It's ok. You're safe at McChord Base Hospital. It's ok." He shot from his chair and grabbed her arms, making her look at him.

"Daniel?" she gasped, frowning.

"Yeah. You're ok. You're in McChord Base Hospital," he repeated.

"McChord…Seattle? What the hell am I doing in Seattle?"

"The aah…the bad guys. You passed out in the tunnel. Remember?" he prodded.

She slumped and plopped back down on the pillows. "Right." She pulled up her left arm decorated with an IV.

"You were dehydrated and your blood sugar was practically non-existent. Not to mention whatever drugs they used, I can't pronounce them," he reported. "There's a few bruises, but nothing permanent." He didn't add the other examinations that the doctors performed, the ones proving that a few non-consensual tests were all they'd done to her. He hadn't missed the profound looks of relief that passed over Jack and Teal'c's faces. He knew if those men had violated their friend they'd likely be dead now, no matter whose custody they were in.

"How's the colonel?" she asked, running her hand through her tousled hair.

"He's…ok. You know you passing out was sorta a good thing, it stopped him from complaining about his arm. We may have to remember that, next time he starts going off about something we can take turns passing out…might shut him up for a bit." She rolled her eyes and shook her head then started to laugh. He shot her a curious look; afraid she was freaking out on him. "Aah Sam…"

"Nothing. I'm just…I just have this image of Teal'c just falling over…splat." She raised her hand and smacked the mattress.

"He'll have to warn us…yell timber or something." He started laughing too.

"He'll have to drop his staff weapon, he could put out an eye with that thing," Sam gasped, laughing harder.

They were just winding down when the nurse came in, peering cautiously around the door. "Well you seem to be feeling better Major," she said, coming to Sam's bedside and checking her nearly empty IV.

"Yeah. Is there any way I can get rid of this?" She asked, the humor leaving her voice.

"I think so. Since you're awake now." The woman deftly pulled the needle out of Sam's arm applying pressure with a small piece of gauze. "Just keep up on the fluids. You're still a little dehydrated. And I'll have a tray sent up. Take it slow and you should be ok," She advised, disposing of the needle in the red biohazard box on the wall.

She left and Sam lifted the gauze, seeing if it had stopped bleeding. Daniel could see a small smear of blood, similar to other marks on her arms. He knew they'd kept her drugged via intravenous lines during the last week. And from the bruises around some of them, they hadn't been too gentle about it.

"Ooh, I almost forgot. brought you something." He bent over and picked up a paper bag off the floor setting it on the bed.

Curious, Sam dug into it and drew out a pair of navy sweat pants, an ash colored 'Property of the US Air Force' t-shirt, shoes, socks, underwear and her toothbrush. "This is my stuff," she said, holding up the toothbrush.

"Yeah. Well they found your car and we took it home for you then we wanted to make sure everything was ok in your house and the laundry was piled on the couch and I just had this feeling that you might want it when we found you and…I hope you don't mind," he said quickly, wondering if they'd gone too far. Sure arranging for her neighbor to gather her mail was one thing, digging through her laundry and her bathroom was another.

"No. That's ok…I…" She trailed off.

"What?"

"You knew you would find me?" She asked in a small voice, her voice breaking.

He sat on the bed beside her. "Hell yeah. We weren't going to stop until we did. I wish it had been sooner rather than later but…we were going to find you," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

She surprised him by hugging him back tightly. "I wasn't so sure," she said.

"If Maybourne's information didn't pan out, Jack was going to convince General Hammond to let him contact Thor, play his 'we saved your little gray butts' card."

She started to giggle and pulled back, surreptitiously wiping away a few tears. "I still can't believe he said that."

"Neither could the general."

"General Hammond knows?"

"Yeah, it sorta slipped out," he said smiling at the memory of just how red the general's face had turned. The man had muttered something about charm school as he ushered them from his office. "If you want to, once you change we can sneak down the hall and visit Jack. Rescue Teal'c before he dismembers him or something."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jack lay flat on the bed staring intently at the regulation boring ceiling. You'd think hospitals would decorate the ceilings or something as many of their patients that had to just lay there and stare at them.

Despite the doctor's warnings, he tried to peek over his chest and see his toes. Were they moving? Or were they just lying there like dead weight?

He wondered what would be worse, not having worn the vest and likely being dead right about now or the way he was, mostly in one piece but potentially useless.

Carter had been right, the vest had stopped the bullet, and it hadn't even broken the skin. But what else had it broken? He'd seen guys getting busted ribs and cracked sternums from absorbing the force of a bullet. What if it had messed up his spine? What kind of a future did that hold for him? Wheeling out to the dock to fish from his wheelchair for the rest of his life? Not being able to reach anything higher than five feet off the ground. Losing control of his bodily functions. Watching his legs waste away as the muscles atrophied. Well on the bright side, at least his knee wouldn't bug him anymore.

"O'Neill, such activity is a waste of energy," Teal'c said sagely.

Jack shot him a killing look. Who was he to try and spoil a nice bout of self-pity? "Not now Teal'c."

"Since we do not possess the capability of time travel without the benefit of a stargate, now is all we have."

Jack sighed. "Look Teal'c why don't you go see how Carter is?" And leave me alone.

"Daniel Jackson is with Major Carter at present and according to the physicians her condition is not life threatening."

"Good for her," Jack muttered, feeling like an ass as he did. It wasn't her fault he'd gotten shot. Hell if he wanted to assign blame he could blame himself for leaving her behind on Nasyia and getting her snaked in the first place. Or on the stupid rules of jurisdiction that meant they'd had only local police as backup, local police that they couldn't send goa'uld hunting. Hell they might as well have gone into that hospital alone for all the good the SWAT team did.

"Do you regret your actions? We did not have to investigate the hospital in person, we would have been with in our rights to simply inform the local authorities and let them remedy the situation."

"What? No. No Teal'c I don't regret going after her. There's no way in hell I would have just turned it over to the police. I just…"

"You fear the injury to your back may be permanent? That you will be disabled?"

"Yeah," Jack admitted grudgingly.

"Soon after I became First Prime to Apophis I was in a battle. Among Jaffa it is not uncommon for subordinates to rise through the ranks by assassination. One of my men shot me in the back with his staff weapon, hoping to take my place as First Prime. He did not survive the attempt," He said, a look of sad satisfaction on his face. "However I was unable to move. The battle had moved past my position. I could not call for aid lest I fall victim to another ambitious Jaffa, and I could not remove myself from the field of battle to seek a healer. Therefore I laid there, waiting for my Prim'ta to either heal me or to let me die." He met Jack's rapt gaze. "It took three days for me to be able to feel my legs, four for me to be able to walk back to camp. Many had given me up for dead. My appearance was a most unwelcome surprise to some."

Jack opened his mouth as the door opened, the doctor walking in. Teal'c quickly stepped aside. "Colonel O'Neill. How are you feeling?" the man asked cheerfully, too cheerfully.

"Oh I dunno doc. Why don't you tell me?" Jack said bracing himself for the worst. He could sell his house, find a one story ranch with nice wide doorways…

"…No permanent damage," the man finished.

Jack pulled his attention back to the present. "What?"

The doctor smiled. "The numbness is simply because of a little bit of swelling. There is no damage, not that we can see anyway. Just think of it like when you hit your funny bone and your arm goes numb for a bit. I'll prescribe some anti-inflamatories and you should be good as new in a week or two. I'm willing to bet the numbness fades within the next twenty four hours or so," the man said, relieved to be delivering some good news.

Jack let out a breath he hadn't really known he'd been holding "Thanks Doc. So…"

"I've arranged your transport back to Colorado. You're going to be in a wheel chair for a day or two, just as a precautionary measure. If you try to push it and fall you can do some serious and permanent damage. But, and I think your doctor will agree with me, a couple weeks of R&R and you'll be good as new."

"That's great doc, thanks," Jack said honestly.

The doctor handed him the controls for the bed. "You can sit up now, but NO standing or walking," he warned as he left the room.

"That is most welcome news O'Neill," Teal'c said as Jack slowly worked the controls to sit up.

"Damn straight. Hand me my pants Teal'c."

"The physician specifically said you were not to walk," he said, taking station at the foot of Jack's bed, prepared to physically restrain him if necessary.

"I ain't going to. Give me my wallet. Someone said there was a pizza place around the corner and I'm hungry."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jack groaned and ran his hand over his face, wincing at the stubble. He likely looked like more of a reprobate now than usual. Oh well, he'd certainly looked worse in his life. He heard the rustle of the institutional plastic covered mattress and looked over at his impromptu roommate. Sam was curled up under one of the spare blankets on the once empty second bed in the room. He smiled slightly at the memory of the night duty nurse who'd come looking for the missing major long around 2300 last night. When Jaffa glares and the pulling of rank hadn't worked, Daniel discretely pulled the woman out into the hall and batted those baby blues of his. The next thing they knew not only was the woman more than happy to let Sam sleep on the adjacent bed but she was bringing extra blankets and offering a rollaway bed for Daniel to use.

They'd enjoyed a quiet evening of sitting around, squabbling over the remote and what they watched.  Jack hadn't missed how Daniel and Teal'c had been most efficient in plying Sam with as much water, diet soda or juice that they could find along with frequent trips to the vending machine and cafeteria for munchies.  And none of them mentioned the real reason he was content to just lay around in the bed instead of grousing and harassing the nurses. She had enough to deal with right now without a guilt trip.

She was quieter than usual, seeming content to just sit on the sidelines and watch. He knew she was still working things out in her head, hell they all were. Where exactly had Maybourne disappeared to? Had he helped the goa'uld escape? Or had he simply saved his own hide and the goa'uld had another ally? What was going to happen the next time someone leaked classified information and some jerk needed a lab rat? Was earth not the safe haven they'd thought it to be? And what odd connection did goa'uld have to Seattle anyway?

And there was the fact that there was another goa'uld running around earth, a goa'uld that had extensive technological knowledge thanks to the host. All in all Harry had opened up one hell of an ugly can of worms. He should have shot him years ago.

She murmured in her sleep and he wondered if she was going to have another nightmare. She had had several during the night, most of which he figured she wouldn't even remember. After the first one Teal'c had moved and meditated closer to her bed, ready to sooth her before the dreams really took hold. Between that and the seemingly endless stream of nurses who paraded into the room to see if he was still alive, Jack figured he'd gotten more sleep in the middle of a war zone.

He made a mental note to talk to Hammond when they got back to the SGC and see if Teal'c could spend some time out in the world, maybe play body guard for a certain major. He had an idea it was either that or she'd be spending a lot of time on the base. This thing had shaken her up enough he was pretty sure she'd take him up on the offer, as long as he worded it right. And he knew he'd feel better if someone kept an eye on her for a bit.

It was the same way he'd felt those first few missions after Daniel's run-in with Mister Fishhead or every time Teal'c went to visit his wife and kid knowing that most of the snakeheads in the known universe wanted his head on a platter.

Maybe it was a misplaced paternal instinct, or maybe it was an overactive sense of responsibility but he felt damned protective about his kids.

He heard movement and looked over to see Sam sitting up, a small frown on her face.

"Morning," he called cheerfully.

"Oh. Morning sir. How did I…"

"You crashed somewhere around the middle of the Gilligan's Island marathon. We convinced the nurses that it'd be stupid to wake you up when that bed was empty."

She nodded. "Thanks." She swung her feet over the edge of the bed, folding back the blanket. "How's your arm?"

"Not that bad. Should get me out of paperwork for a week or three."

She nodded and got off the bed, bending down to pick up her tennis shoes Teal'c had taken off last night when he'd tucked her into bed. "Daniel said you were going to call Thor," she said abruptly.

"If this had turned out to be a dead end…yeah."

"That aah…that means a lot, thanks."

Ooh good, you're awake," Daniel declared, bursting into the room balancing fast food bags. "T…Murray and I were afraid we'd have to wake you up."

"You been out charming the nurses?" Jack said, grinning at the resigned look on Teal'c's face as Daniel set down the bags and started distributing food. One of these days he was going to pay for the Murray thing.

"No actually. I was arranging for our transport home, talking to the doctor about getting you two discharged and ducking questions from a local police captain who's not happy that the FBI stepped in and took over his case. Bacon, egg and cheese right?" he held out a biscuit sandwich to Sam who took it gratefully and sat back on the bed.

"Arranging transport?" Jack asked, taking a sandwich and unwrapping it hungrily. "What happened to the plane?" He asked around a mouthful of food.

"Oh the plane is still there. It's just getting a ride to the plane that I had to arrange. And it will be here in an hour. Which is just enough time for us to eat and do the paperwork." He handed a sandwich to Teal'c then took the last one for himself, sitting on his rollaway bed and unwrapping it.

"You are getting alarmingly efficient in your old age," Jack said, carefully sipping the hot coffee Teal'c had given him. "Wonder where you picked that quirk up from?"

"Teal'c," Sam interjected with a grin, gaining her a glare from Jack.

"Hey. I'm the smartass around here."

"Yes we know O'Neill," Teal'c said with a long suffering look on his face.

"Quite a party we have going on," the doctor said walking into the room. "Colonel if you're going to leave soon I need to do one quick exam before the nurse comes in and gets you dressed."

"That's my cue to leave," Sam said, getting to her feet and balancing her breakfast.

"Mine too," Daniel spoke up.

Sam worked her way around the foot of the bed and stumbled a bit, catching her stocking clad foot on a dangling blanket from Daniel's bed. Her breakfast went flying, half eaten bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and a diet coke spilling on the foot of Jack's bed. "Colonel I'm sorry," she apologized, horrified at her clumsiness.

"Ow. That's cold!" Jack complained, watching the blanket turn an ugly brown as the liquid seeped in. He felt the cold moving up his legs as the soda spread. He felt it. Hot damn. "It's no problem Carter, no problem at all," he said, pulling his feet towards him and drier surroundings.

She gave him an odd look, surprised at his calm acceptance of the situation. "He's on drugs," Daniel dismissed, recognizing the significance. "Come on." He took her arm. "Before they wear off and Colonel Grumpy rears his ugly head."

Daniel ushered Sam from the room and Jack shared a look with Teal'c giving the man a small nod. "Is everything all right colonel? Do you feel ok?" The doctor asked.

"I feel great," Jack answered with a grin. "So how about this exam. I got a plane to catch."

Fin


End file.
